The third remote installation of three distinct musicians – Austrian violinist, electronics player, and free improviser Mia Zabelka, who is the main composer of this installation, recorded at Störung Studios in Barcelona; Denver-based veteran indigenous, Chicano American trumpeter Joshua Trinidad, who opts for less is more aesthetic, recorded at his home studio; and Indian, Mumbai-based bass synth player Icosterch (aka Arun Natarajan), who is a composer classically trained in Carnatic music who turned to be an extreme netal musician, recorded at Subcontinental Studios (he is the founder of Subcontinental label), and responsible for the arrangements and the mix.

Aftershock Vol.3 is framed by a quote from Canadian poet Anne Carson on Eros: «Eros is an issue of boundaries. He exists because certain boundaries do. In the interval between reach and grasp, between glance and counter glance, between ‘I love you’ and ‘I love you too,’ the absent presence of desire comes alive. But the boundaries of time and glance and I love you are only aftershocks of the main, inevitable boundary that creates Eros: the boundary of flesh and self between you and me. And it is only, suddenly, at the moment when I would dissolve that boundary, I realize I never can».

The album merges distinct approaches to sound, sketches a minimalist ambient soundtrack, and credits mastering engineer and producer Alex Gámez (aka Asférico), who recorded Zabelka’s suggestive violin improvisations and handled the album’s sound design. Icostech’s mix adds an expansive, dark, melancholic, feedback-laden, metallic drone touch that corresponds with the hypnotic metal formations of Sunn O))). The nuanced aftershocks of desire are faithfully transformed into thought-provoking and unsettling waves of sound that attempt to offer «A canvas on emptiness», as one of the pieces is titled.

Eyal Hareuveni

Mia Zabelka (violin, electronics), Joshua Trinidad (trumpet), Icostech (bass synth)